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S.J.D. Student Receives Julius B. Richmond Fellowship

May 15, 2012

Harvard Law School S.J.D. candidate Claire Houston has been named a recipient of the Julius B. Richmond Fellowship from the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. She will receive a dissertation grant totaling $10,000 from the Center to fund independent research during the 2012-13 academic year. Houston is the first student from HLS to be awarded this honor.

Houston’s research focuses on feminist legal reform projects in the area of family law. She is especially interested in the impact such projects have on children's interests. Houston received her LL.M. from HLS in 2010. She attended university in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, earning her LL.B from Queen’s University in 2007 and her B.A. in Women’s Studies from Trent University in 2003. She worked as a law clerk for the Ontario Court of Appeals and she worked at the Ontario Office of the Children’s Lawyer. Her thesis is entitled, “From the ‘Woman Question’ to the ‘Child Question’: Exploring Feminism’s Impact on Family Law and What This Means for Children.”

“I am honored to have been awarded a Richmond Fellowship, and thrilled to be working with the Center on the Developing Child,” stated Houston. “The potential for cross-disciplinary collaboration in the area of family law is huge, and I am excited to serve as a link between HLS and the Center. I am sure my own work will benefit greatly from the opportunity to work with child development professionals.”

Two other students from Harvard graduate schools have also received the 2012 Julius B. Richmond Fellowship. Anjali Adukia is a sixth-year doctoral student studying the economics of education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in the Quantitative Policy Analysis in Education program. Madeleine deBlois is a fourth-year doctoral student in the Department of Society, Human Development, and Health at the Harvard School of Public Health.

This is the sixth year the center has awarded Richmond Fellowships. Including this year’s awardees, a total of 21 fellows have been named since the program’s inaugural year in 2007-08.

The Richmond Fellowships honor the career of the late Julius B. Richmond, who was the founding director of Head Start, a former U.S. surgeon general and assistant secretary for health in the Carter administration, and professor of health policy, emeritus, at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Richmond died in 2008 at the age of 91.

The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University was established in 2006 to leverage scientific knowledge to enhance child well being through innovations in policy and practice. For more information, visit their website.